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New Zealand - Caving at Waitomo & return to South Island

1st - 9th February

New Zealand - Orewa to Picton via Waitomo caves

We rode down to Raglan from Orewa through some beautiful countryside on some beautiful roads , however we hadn’t been able to find anywhere to eat or any toilets along the way . On the way to Raglan we drove across Auckland again, and whilst we had been almost tempted to visit their main tower, the weather was not looking too good so we didn’t bother going for a second time.

Once in Raglan mid-afternoon we found an encouraging looking restaurant, and after using their facilities, we ordered some food.

My hair ‘style’ was fast resembling an ageing Dulux Dog : and so I booked into the local ‘Salon’ for a sort-out the following morning. After buying a few beers we then took off to erect our tent on a local camping spot. It wasn’t the most fantastic of areas but looked like it would do for a night or two. In the evening we went for a stroll on the beach and were able to watch some impressive kite surfing, the same as we’d seen in Orewa.

During the middle of the night a group of young men (camping in the same area as us) came trouncing through the site completely off their heads on something and woke nearly everybody up. It really makes me angry as it is so selfish disturbing everybody else’s sleep so they can have their fun.

The following morning we packed up and went back into town to the ‘Salon’. The Hairdresser was a young British woman who was looking to immigrate to New Zealand. She was very pleasant and gave me a good haircut.

We finally leave Raglan and head off for Waitomo, World famous for it’s underground natural caves. We had a great ride and managed to include two gravel roads along the West coast which gave us a nice overview of the coastline. From one vantage point we could see a number of wrecked cars had been pushed over the edge of the cliff :-we’re not sure of the circumstances behind this but we don’t think it was where they shot the Italian job !!.

The Bride's veil falls seen en-route to Waitomo.Very impressive.

Finally we came to our last major road-junction to Waitomo, however there was a sign warning us that the road was impassable as the sole access method of a bridge had collapsed. To take the alternative route would have added about 30-50 miles so I ignored the sign, much to the confusion of Sylvia -to whom I assure something will work out. After 15-20 miles we get a view of the bridge from a vantage point of a few miles away and comprehensively comprehend the warning now. The middle has collapsed and is close to the water, whilst the whole crossing was around 200m. I spot a garage in town and rouse the owner to see if he has any suggestions. He told us he’d already driven his 4x4 over the bridge today and half-encourages me to do the same, however I could ‘also’ ask his neighbour who owns an adjacent farm if we could ride across his farm as it would give us access to the same road that the bridge would have.

The broken bridge...which actually had been only recently refurbished.

I decide that I need to inspect the bridge closer up. On doing so, I am amazed at how the garage owner managed to get his 4x4 up on 2 wheels necessary to get around the solid barriers on either side of the bridge . In short, we just can’t see how he would have physically done it at all !!!. I walk the bridge first, and examine it along with some warning signs before deciding that it was rideable, even though Sylvia was not so enthusiastic ! I set up on the bike and Sylvia sets about filming the ‘event‘. My two biggest points of concern were bridging the point right in the middle where both wheels would be on different surfaces ( and one would be coming down whilst the other was going up) and the stability effects of a ridge created by the break in the bridge near the top. It wasn’t too bad in the end, although I was a bit nervous as I really couldn’t obviously be 100% confident that the bridge wouldn’t collapse or that my expectations of the bikes behaviour on the two points of note were correct. Sylvia moved the necessary warning tape etc so I could get the bike on to the road.

Surveying the bridge a bit closer up.

Ready steady ........ if you could only have seen my face.. ...GO !!!

Safe on the other side......

Sylvia back on we set off for our ‘Top Ten’ campsite at Waitomo. Along the way we meet a German couple in a Campervan heading towards the bridge and so we warn them in English, and Sylvia in German , of the road ahead.

We set off again and were soon in Waitomo, which turned out to be a very nice small town with a very nice campsite. We set up the tent and were amazed to find that we were able to borrow DVD films from the campsite reception absolutely free. Sylvia made us some dinner and we watched our first free film before retiring for the day.

Sitting on the back could ocasionally be a bit boring for Sylvia so I slipped this into the 'map' pocket of my Rallye II suit one morning to cheer her along !

The following day we took it easy. Sylvia washed our now very dirty bike suits again, along with our clothes, and we browsed through the caving options at the town information centre, which, incidentally are known as ISITES in NZ.

I also spent an hour or so on the Internet and discovered a repeated illegal transaction on one of my bank accounts ! (It turned out to be from one of Interflora’s associates and as a result of some very slyly worded marketing on both their parts.)

After a lot of consideration we decide to take the ‘Spellbound’ tour which ‘David Attenborough’ recommends as you get to see the strange phenonmen of Glow worms. Along with the glow worm tour you also get to see another beautiful cave as part of the package. This option was also chosen as Sylvia wasn’t in a position to manouvre anywhere with a broken arm, and this represented the best all-round safe option for her. After a lot of further wrestling I also commit myself to ‘Absolute Caving’, a company that claims to give you a proper introduction to caving and not a tourist experience (as many of the other operators in the area do). I don’t like closed spaces or heights so from the moment I signed up for it, my fear reserves increased significantly !.

After another easy start we take the Spellbound tour to see the glow worms in tunnel-shaped cave from an inflatable boat. After your eyes were used to the darkness, the light from the Glow Worms was sufficient for you to see the inside of the caves. In our second cave tour we see some beautiful stalagmite & stalagtite formations, along with the fossilised remains of a Moa (which is similar to an Ostrich/Emu but completely wingless & grew up to 2m in height, and related to Kiwi but extinct as hunted for meat by Maoris.) We also see the skeleton of goat which had wandered into cave and not been able to find its way out, and we hear of a cow that fell into the cave whilst grazing on the ground above. It died as a result of the fall and took some effort to get it out.

At the begining of Sylvia & I's 'Spell-bound' tour.

Some Glow-worms.

and some more - no flash was used.

The skeletal remains of a Moa.

In the afternoon I go off to meet up for my Absolute Caving adventure. A young lady meets me and we take off, I imagining that we’re going to meet the rest of the team. However I quickly learn that we are this afternoons cavers !! She turns out to be 19 and I privately wonder what happens if I should get stuck and need helping out. Anyway, I decide to look on the positive side and she kits me up and talks me through my paces on the various ropes, clamps and techniques necessary for our adventure. The trip is to involve some abseiling, crawling through tight spaces in cold water, under, over and around rocks. The whole trip underground will be between 2-3hours.

We set off and are soon using all the various clamps and abseiling down through some fairly narrow spaces. Once on ’a’ bottom we start to walk along and examine various geological structures which was proving quite enjoyable. About half way through this part of the tour I am advised that the return trip, which is further underground, is normally led by the visiting group to complete their caving introduction(of which I am one !), however as I am only one, she will accompany me. I however desire the whole introduction and so before my fear reserves engage with my mouth I commit myself to leading myself back on my own.

Using the 'Cow Bells' at the begining of my caving adventure.

My introduction to abseiling - glad there was plenty of space !!

A short stop in a 'cavern'-(if I remember correctly).

Some of the sights underground-I can't honestly claim that they were amazing but I enjoyed the experience none-the-less.

I can't remember how this one was formed but it was a bit like shellac and obviously translucent.

Once we get to a certain point, this is deemed our coffee and biscuit break before returning back(on my own) via the lower route. I am assured that whilst I won’t hear or see my guide, she will be there and if I call out she’ll hear me.

I set off and for about 10 mins all is going well. I wriggle through a few low and wet holes and am generally pleased with my progress. I then wriggle through a ‘set’ of ever decreasing sized holes until I have to lie on my side to get through to the next one. As the end of this wriggle I can’t see a way out and ‘know’ I can’t go back. I call out-no response, I call out a gain a bit louder-still no response , I call out a gain a lot louder to which I hear my Guides re-assuring voice. I am advised that if I aim towards her light/voice I will find a vertical exit to the hole I am in. It seemed almost impossible to imagine at the time but I trust her and soon am out of that hole and into another. I can’t remember exactly how many holes & tight squeezes we went through in the next 20 or so mins but they all seemed smaller than the previous ones. I remember having to climb up two water falls through some pretty small holes. As the time went on, I started to get a little freaked out as I didn’t know how many more ’hurdles’ I was going to have to tackle and was getting tired, however before I started to get panicky we were out back in the open, my first caving experience completed. My crowning moment was emptying my wellies !!

Sylvia was expecting me back at around 8pm but my guide had forgotten to collect an important family jewellery gift she’d left behind and so turned back (with my permission) to collect it. I’d miscalculated our return journey time and so when I finally arrive back at nearer to 9pm Sylvia is understandably worried. We sort it out between ourselves and enjoy the rest of the evening.

With such adventures a rest is desired and so we decide to enjoy the hot tub on the camp site the following day and I try to isolate where the leak is coming from in my new Kathmandu airbed. ( The leak it transpired was coming from the weld seams around the outside meeting point of the two outer surfaces.)

Later I make some Internet updates and spoke to my Bike Insurer in Australia to find out how my claim was progressing against the unisured Twollop in Darwin (who knocked the bike over whilst parked.) I also asked if we could use the ‘allowance’ ear-marked to repair the grazed petrol tank to purchase a new silencer (which had been creased when falling over in the storm near the Bungle Bungles in Australia.) Our man agreed which was very flexible and helpful. I was very grateful.

We’d been advised that we could buy good meat from the local Hotel so we did and cooked it on the camp site bar-be-que in the evening. The steak was ok but the sausages tasted of the same sawdust they use in Australia so we were again dissapointed by the taste-less suasages down-under, and still don't understand why !.

The following morning we left Waitomo and rode down to Waitara on coast. Along the way we stopped at a few natural beauty spots known as the Natural Bridge and the Marokopa waterfall. When setting off we’d expected a 55km gravel track but it turned out to be about 10-15km’s. If I sound like I might be disappointed, I wasn’t. The paved road was excellent and had loads and loads of tight bends on an undulating roads.

Our next ride ride from Waitara was going to be very relaxed as we were just riding on a ring road around Mt Taranaki/Mt Egmont ( Moari/English names) in the Egmont National park so we stopped at a Rhodidedron reserve for Coffee on the way. The reserve was beautiful ..... (even though the Rhodidendrons were out of season) …which is more than can be said for the coffee !! We rode some more and took lunch sitting on the beach near one of the coastal light houses which was very nice.

Later in the afternoon we headed for Dawson falls nearer to the foothills of Mt Taranaki. It was supposed to be very beautiful but we’d seen Marokopa falls the day before which were the largest falls I’ve seen to date and these were timid by comparison. The ‘event’ for me turned out to be visiting a hydro-generator which was built in 1901 in the USA and still used today for generating some of the Hotels Electricity that adjoins it. It had been installed (second-hand) in something like 1934 and used ever since .

A cheap attempt at an impression of 'Walls & Bridges' by Mr Lennon ? Actually it was my way of protecting my retinas and still being able to read the map at the same time!!

Mt Taranaki in Egmont National Park.

A Moari 'Totem pole' close to the Dawson Falls information centre.

The 1903 generator still in use today, powering the lights in the adjoining hotel.

After that we headed into Stratford, our planned stop for 2 nights and pitched up at the only camp-site in town. One stupid incident near the end of our first day occurred regarding closing of the camp kitchen and TV area. There were 3 couples sitting chating or watching the TV, when, at 22:15, a security man came and told us to leave as it closed at 22:00. I said could he give us a few minutes to clear up as we didn’t know. To which he shone his torch at a very old sign on the entrance door which we couldn’t see firstly as the door was completely open (as it was warm) and secondly as it was small, water and time stained. I tried to point out that we couldn’t have seen it to which he said all guests are told on entry of the Kitchen closing times-I assured him we weren’t as we weren’t and he gave us an extra 5 mins.

The following day the ‘landlady/Manager’ came to see us in the Kitchen as we had some Orange juice stolen from the fridge early that morning. After the closing time misunderstanding last night I suggested that she might put up a new sign for the closing hours but she just didn’t seem to want to hear. She started talking about all of us needing our sleep, she’d never had a complaint before and generally didn’t seem to understand what I was saying. I tried again where she insisted that she tells everybody when they arrive anyway !! I tried to tell her she forgot but she was sure that she ‘knew what it was like when you’re travelling-you arrive very tired and don’t hear or remember’. On any other occasion I might have accepted it but on this particular occasion we’d arrived fresh as we’d had an easy day, however she ‘knew’ and I gave up trying to explain.

Today was to be an admin day. We had so many things to follow up on with respect to flights, failing equipment, family e-mails, Insurance requirements, adverts for selling the bike when I get back to Australia that I needed to knuckle down again. Most of this was achieved in Stratfords library.

There's nothing like a good Cuppa ! Eh !!

Stratford is an old town with many of the buildings having been built in the last 1890’s. One particular humerous point of note is a clock tower in the centre of town which has a number of windows in it that open/close on the hour for male and female models of Romeo and Juliet to look out from and recite a few lines from Shakepsears play. Our day was finally punctuated at the end by watching Evan Almighty, the follow up to Bruce Almighty…(if you haven’t seen it.)

Some of the older buildings dotted through the town.

The 'Romeo & Juliet' Tower in Stratford.

Juliet calling from one of the 'Windows'.....

....and after a fitting response from Romeo, .......this version of the play seemed to conclude in a Disney-style ending for them.

We left Stratford the next morning and headed for Wellington to catch our ferry back to the Picton on the South Island. The journey was pleasant enough and the 300 or so Km’s dissolved pretty easily. We arrived about 30 mins early for the ferry and met up with quite a few other waiting bikers on mainly Harleys and Triumphs.

The sailing was smooth and the ferry actually had decent tie-downs for the bikes so we were confident that even if the sailing would have been rough, the bike would have stayed put.

Waiting with the other bikers at Wellington for 'our' ferry to un-load.

Tying down the bike was indeed a pleasure, but not quite as good as my smile would suggest - they must have been serving lamb for dinner !

Our first sighting of the South Island and out-going ferry from the competing ferry operator.

Arrival at Picton.

We arrived in Picton on time at 9pm and managed to get a very small spot to erect our tent on the ‘Top Ten’ camp site there.

We were back on the South Island (again) for our proper tour of what is known as the most beautiful of the two islands.

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